Racing to War

Autorentext

Eric Hall began his career as an engineer at Grumman Aircraft (now Northrop Grumman) where he worked on the F-14 Tomcat, the EA6-B Prowler, and Gulf stream aircraft. He then turned to naval architecture where he was the lead engineer on the redesign of the America's Cup-winning 12-meter yacht Intrepid, which led him to form his own yacht rigging company, Hall Spars. An instrument-rated private pilot, he lives in Bristol, Rhode Island.

Klappentext

Robert Hall was the rarest of aviation pioneers— an aeronautical engineer who was also the test pilot for his designs. Serving as Chief Engineer and lead test pilot at Grumman Aviation at the outbreak of the Second World War, he was able to expedite the development of navel aircraft to replace the Navy's aging air fleet, particularly fighters that would outperform the daunting Japanese Zero, one of the fastest fighters of the early years of the war. In all, Hall had a hand in the design and flight testing of the three aircraft that changed the tide of war in the Pacific for the Americans: the F4F Wildcat, the F6F Hellcat, and the Avenger torpedo bomber. Hall's extraordinary talent came from his experience designing, building, and flying some of the fastest racing planes of the 1930s, crossing paths with such aviation icons as Jimmy Doolittle, Amelia Earhart, Charles Lindbergh, and the flamboyant racer Florence Klingersmith. But it was his work at Grumman that posed the ultimate challenge, and this book is a gripping account of how he and Grumman engineers worked with the Navy to meet the challenge presented by the Japanese in the Pacific. Often risking his own life to ensure the airworthiness of Grumman's prototypes, his remarkable story is a behind-the-scenes look at heroes on the home front whose contributions to victory were no less significant than those of front-line soldiers, sailors, and airmen.

Inhalt

Key to Photo Credits

Author’s Note: Fifty Years of US Aviation

Prologue

Part I: The Racing Years

1 Engineer in the Making

2 Michigan

3 First Flight

4 Fairchild

5 Becoming a Pilot

6 Designing a Plane After Hours

7 The Granville Brothers

8 Granville A-1

9 An Unlikely Customer

10 Model X

11 Cirrus Derby

12 Model Y Pushes the Limits

13 Model Z Super Sportster

14 First Flight of the Model Z

15 Preparing for National Debut

16 National Air Races

17 Zero Hour

18 Thompson Trophy Race

19 Hall and Granville Part Ways

20 A Tragedy and a New Beginning

21 Thompson Trophy Fever Grows

22 Lynch’s Plane Takes Shape

23 Thaw Orders a Thompson Racer

24 Cicada Takes to the Air

25 Progress on Cicada and Thaw Racer

26 Pressure Builds

27 Bulldog in Limbo

28 Dimming Prospects

29 Thompson Trophy II

30 The End of Springfield Aircraft Company

Part II: The War Years

31 A New Opportunity

32 A Plane for a Star Aviatrix

33 Tragedy Strikes Again

34 The Model O Is a Corker!

35 SR5 Reliant and Fighter Plane Dreams

36 Canadian Seaplane Caper and a Call from Grumman

37 Twin-Engine Amphibian

38 Testing the Goose and the XF4F

39 Terminal Velocity Dive

40 Wheels-Up Landing

41 Trap Enters the Scene

42 Corsair Problems

43 Trap Demands Big New Fighter

44 Last Flight of the XP-50

45 Water Rescue

46 Three Big Warplanes

47 Party Atmosphere Turns Ominous

48 Fw 190 and the Luck of the English

49 Grumman’s Triumph

50 Two Planes Crash the Same Week

51 Eglin Joint Fighter Conference

52 Grumman’s Hot Rod Fighter

53 Evaluating the Fw 190

54 The XF7F-1’s New Pilot

55 Development of XF7F-1 and XF8F-1

56 The XF8F-1 Takes Flight

57 Patuxent River Joint Fighter Conference

58 Into the Jet Age

Epilogue

Acknowledgments

Bibliography

Index

About the Author